Do you need something to do on a rainy day? Are you worried that you will forget what it’s like to be a student? Or do you already miss school so much that you could use a little mental road trip back to campus?
Get the popcorn ready, find the perfect spot on the couch, turn off your phone and join me on a tour through five decades of college themed movies. We have old classics and new goodies – hopefully there’s something that strikes everyone’s fancy!
The Social Network (2010)
This subject has influenced our generation more than any other college movie. It’s not because it’s the most recent college themed film; it’s neither its style nor because it’s about actual people. No, it’s about Facebook, a topic that has become part of most of our lives.
College still is and probably always will be about who you know, who you are friends with and making sure the right people know about those friendships. We live in a world where social hierarchy is everything and no place makes that clearer than college. By taking this social experience online, Mark Zuckerberg revolutionized our every day interactions – both on and off campus. Nerds seem to be a timeless subject for a college movie but The Social Network takes it to a new level: Even nerdiness has changed over time and in our Web 2.0 society, nerds have the ability to become the new rock stars. If you cannot be part of other people’s world, you can create your own. You get the chance to call the shots and have the power to make people want to be part of that world.But of course it’s not as easy as it sounds: Just because you are the creator of a Social Network does not mean that you have social skills. The questions and problems surrounding Facebook and Zuckerberg himself, present enough material for at least one sequel.
The dialogue and the editing are extremely fast, and the soundtrack is pretty “edgy” yet Oscar-winning. But this the perfect approach to the subject and to reach a target audience that has the attention span of a YouTube video. The plot might be too complicated to explain to your grandparents but in its core, the movie is about timeless topics such as love, rejection, power, and friendship. Of course, every good story has one of these themes but The Social Network takes it into our modern world. More gadgets might open more possibilities and convenience but our fears and needs are basically still the same. If your crush rejects you or your best friend turns his/her back on you, you suffer just the same. Broken hearts don’t heal faster in the 21st century; they probably just do it more publicly.
Even if you don’t like the movie, at least always remember the following advice: Never blog drunk and angry. Chances are very slim that you will create the next Facebook but end up with a lot more problems than you could have ever imagined when you turned on the computer.
This concludes the little series about college themed movies. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Who knows, I’ll probably be back…
Isabelle Mitchell is from Switzerland (not Sweden). She loves coffee and chocolate and she can talk about movies and the weather for a very long time. Isabelle went to Film School in Denmark and Canada and is a Sound Designer, but she’s currently working on getting her BS in Advertising at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh (Online Division). She’s planning on slowly taking over the advertising world one tagline at a time. When she’s not doing homework or studying, she works as a Marketing Assistant. You can find her on Twitter @isabellesagt or if you have a longer attention span, her blog.